Customer Reviews

American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is a lovely book for all pie makers and pie lovers. The quest for pie is so pure that doors are open to Ms Le Draoulec that might now have been to others on a different journey.
I too love to collect "pie lore", the tales and thoughts of pie makers. The particular ones in this book are a delight.
The first part of the book was intriguing but I was absolutely in love with the tale by the time we meet Juanita and her Rhubarb Cream Pie.
Many books with recipes fail at this point. The story is good but what about the recipes? Do these recipes prove to be good? Well Jaunita's pie was simple and just darn divine!! It charmed
me and my basic-apple-pie husband had to have seconds!
THANKS Pascale for the heavenly experience.

This book is a delightful mix of food writing, recipe book, travelogue, Americana, and good literature. It is light, fluffy and fun, and reading it might just change your life, if you let it.

Le Draoulec has a love of small-town America that gives this delightful book the flavor of a Charles Kurault essay. She spent several weeks crossing the United States with two simple rules -- stay off the big freeways and look for great pie. To add to the fun, she took a girlfriend, someone who had explored Australia but never small-town America. The two set off into the unknown, and quickly give themselves over to this delightful adventure.("We tossed our running shoes in the trunk, and that's where they stayed for the next three weeks.")

As a lover of pie, a baker of pie, as someone who often takes trips on the small roads and who loves to stop at non-chain restaurants, I loved the idea. Le Draoulec delivers. This book is as sweet, wholesome and gently spicy as a good homemade apple pie.

But wait... did I mention the recipes? She didn't just find pie, she came back with recipes! I have tried just a few, and each so far has been great.

Underlying all this great material is the fact that Pascale Le Draoulec can write. She has a wonderfully light touch with langauge -- never awkward. Her literary references land as fun, mind-expanding, rather than reminder's of the author's education.

And, yes, reading a book with this much love in it can change your life. I am more likely now to go ahead and order dessert when I see pie on the menu, and I am more likely to stop in a small, independent restaurant where I might find pie. Just last week, I got to tell an Austin chef how good her pie is. She glowed. My husband just sat back, smiled, and watched the two of us share our passion for pie. As soon as you start talking pie with someone, you're not strangers anymore.

This books combines the perspectives of the roadtrip, the female "buddy adventure," and a food book all in one, as author Le Draoulec and two different female friends go on two different roadtrips to explore the world of pie. In her search for pie, the author encounters interesting characters and snapshots of America and Americana.

A downside is that the author's engagement is somewhat... superficial. By her own admission, her choosing of pie as the theme for her roadtrip is arbitrary. As a journalist always looking for a story, she is constantly on the lookout for certain tidbits, soundbites, and events of interest, and this renders a certain self-consciouness to the proceedings.

For example: In Memphis, an old man mentions a pie stop that local people go to after church: "I was glad he brought church up," the writer says, "because Kris and I had a hankering for some live, soul-searing spirituals." She goes on to describe their morning adventure as two 30-something white yuppie women in an all-black southern church. How phony, opportunistic, whitebread and contrived can you get? That, and a few too many predictable self-deprecatory "to hell with our waistlines -- we're eating more pie" jokes of the "Cathy" comicstrip sensibility -- wears thin after awhile.

Some of those aspects may be pet peeves on my part. But a very real problem with the book is a significant loss of momentum between sections (between her first and second pie trips) that makes it read almost like two different books.

All that said, this is a fun and entertaining book. It will make you excited about pie, and for cooks there are probably some great recipes. Despite some superficiality, there are some compassionate and interesting portraits of the people they encounter. And in the end, the author digs a bit deeper into herself, and finally connects with her subject matter. I found the concluding two pages to be moving and memorable.

This book is very well written, entertaining, useful and funny. What more can you ask for in a book? It will appeal to anyone who loves a road trip, food or America. It takes you on a action-packed journey around the country, with lots of interesting sites and great characters. This book moved me on many levels as I recalled my own pie memories and stepped back to look at what I make time for (and don't make time for) in my life. Pascale explores not only pie, but American culture and priorities. We are so focused on the quick and easy, that some of our greatest treasures are at stake (pie and the time to bake one). Not only is it a great read, but it is a gold mine of pie recipes from the backroads of America. And, to top it off, it includes charming black & white photos that capture the trip and the pie bakers. I highly recommend this book. (Great gift item!)

If you are desiring a useful guide to good pies in America, pass on this one. The authors skimp heavily on any useful information. They do give recipes for making pies yourself, but who wants to do that? I've got big important business-type things to do!

This is my kind of book! It made me want to share food ideas and travel memories with the author, and it definitely made me get out my rolling pin. The night after I finished the book, we invited friends over for garden-ripe tomato sandwiches on homemade whole grain bread with homemade mayo and freshly-picked basil. That is all we needed to go with my georgia peach-blackberry lattice pie! We did add my neighbor's pickled yard beans on the side. My guests came to the kitchen and made their own sandwiches.
I am a cookbook writer and retired cooking school teacher and chef. My daughter and I had a restaurant where we featured a different homemade dessert every day. People came from miles around for these old-fashioned treats. Worn out knees forced me to throw in the towel. Also, I had quit having people over because I just can't do all the work that a real dinner entails.
This was such a simple solution. Just spend time on a couple of things that are showstoppers (the bread and the pie), put out some good wine, and you have it made. I thank the author for the inspiration.
The only thing I take issue with is that the author really had no personal criteria on which to judge pie. I am still trying to make the perfect pie crust, but I have made hundreds of attempts and had lots of near misses. In the South, Pie really is alive and well. We still go berry picking by the railroad tracks and have fruit trees in our yards. Pascale really needed me to ride along with her.
It is restaurants that are failing to deliver, and we let them get away with it. Most people, I agree, are too busy to protest mediocrity, much less make a pie.
Juliet DeMarko

Pascale Le Draoulec a West Coast food editor who has never tasted American pie has taken a job on the East Coast. She decides drive from California to the new job in Connecticut and use the trip to experience American pies. Le Draoulec tells of adventures and scenery and people she meets along the way. And she also describes regional pie favorites. Several recipes are included.

This is a must read for someone craving light reading and a good slice of pie!

Those of us who grew up eating American pie will thank Pascale for the book. Reading it causes childhood memories to gently waft by as our taste buds salivate for our mom's/grandma's/aunt's home cooking... Those of you who did not grow up with American pie, like the author, will enjoy her introduction and insights into the heart of American's homespun culture.

My husband and I had the pleasure of meeting Pascale and Ty during a recent vacation in the Caribbean. As we snorkeled, ate fresh and jerked seafood, and challenged crocodiles to prove they were alive, we learned that American Pie was to be released the following week.

The first thing I did when I returned home was to order a copy. Having thoroughly enjoyed Pascale's verbal descriptions of her encounters, I believed her book would be a colorful read. I wasn't disappointed. Of one woman, she'd said "her words came from her mouth like butterflies". I later recognized that same woman when I read "She moved in closer and her words began to take flight."

Refreshingly curious and sincerely interested in others, Pascale is unabashed in pursuing her quest and sharing her finds with her readers. It probably won't be a surprise that home baked pies -- and those who will talk about pie -- seem easiest to find on the back roads in rural America. Both the pies and the people are fascinating (yes, recipes are included).

As you read the book you will experience not only a journey across America, but a connection with people who have time and wisdom to share. For Pascale, this journey helped her to move on in her own life. For readers, the book provides anecdotes about people, food, and places that are not to be missed. You'll enjoy meeting Paul Willis and his hogs, listening to Alma Snell and soaking in her words of wisdom, and seeing Mammy's Cupboard in Mississippi.

If variety is the spice of life, it's all here. Enjoy!

I loved this book! I appreciated the way the author was able to so successfully weave together the strands of her personal journey with that of her original mission. I read it slowly; savoring each experience, discovery and connection she made, delighted to be along for the ride. Ms. LeDraoulec writes so lyrically, that each page is a pleasure.

We go apple picking every Fall,and I make a fabulous apple crisp. My mother-in-law, however, makes reference apple pie. After reading this book, my 8 year old daughter and I made a date with Grandma to learn all that she can share with us. She was thrilled by our request and we look forward to joining the ranks of American pie-baking women.

This book made me smile every time I picked it up.

Having grown up in the rural south, I am a child of church suppers and family reunions, and as such, I am an expert in pie. Having moved on from small town gatherings to big city living, I was very happy to be reassured by Ms. Le Draoulec's book that pride in pie has survived the rush to nostaliga of so many of our traditions. Ms. le Draoulec search for pie on the backroads of America uncovered a great deal more than some really fantastic recipes. Told with the same sense of thoughtfulness and introspection as is a quality of any good "road book," American Pie is about survival of continuity, love and faith in the America's small towns. Ms. le Draoulec "gets" her subjects and tells their stories with a sense of delight and wonder. If I didn't know she was French, I'd swear she was Southern!